Still plenty of time for flowers

I received a beautiful floral card yesterday with a note, "Sorry that this is late for Floraganza".
The note concerned me because if one person thinks that it is too late to send me flowery things, than many people may think that it is too late to send me flowery things, and it most definitely is not.

This is because:

1. My special theme resolutions are on a cycle that changes on Janet's Birthday (January 24), the Lunar New Year (January 31 this year) or when I get around to it (usually February).  January is often the time of intense activity as I recall how much I wanted to accomplish before the theme changes.
2. My resolutions creep on from one year to the next (I'm still learning about lactic acid fermentation, for instance).
3. It's never too late to give me flowers (except if I'm dead, in which case I would rather the money go to planting flowers somewhere or the big party of a wake that I've requested, but presumably I won't care much).

In other Floraganza news, the current Eating Well cover article features flowers-- cauliflower, "the skinny starch" which I will need to go investigate.  What are your favorite cauliflower preparations?

I'm all about floral accessories, these days, and someday I'll post about that.

And, J, a dear friend from graduate school, submitted this guest star post, that I somehow forgot to post in the holiday shuffle.

J writes: I happened to be in Arizona this summer and had a spare evening. I went to the botanic garden in Phoenix and it happened to be on the night in which a queen of the night cactus started to bloom. The garden closed before the flower opened up all the way, but I felt so lucky to have seen it even partially.

I've never smelled a queen of the night in full bloom, but I know enough of about night flowering cactus for JH's short description and photograph to evoke a sense of decadent, attention-demanding, sweet, perfuminess.  I also love the metaphor as applied to humans.  Some people that seem unassuming, or even outright dry and prickly, can shine brilliantly in their element, if only for a very little while.
Thanks J, for reminding us to seek the unexpected and the ephemeral.